Jerusalem Surrounded

When the disciples asked Jesus when the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed and what the signs of this event would be, our Lord responded with a lengthy answer that has come to be known as the Olivet Discourse. We have been studying Luke’s record of this discourse, and thus far, we have read Jesus’ initial words that describe in general terms the kinds of things that His followers could expect to see in the lead-up to the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans. He said that there would be wars, natural disasters, and family betrayal, but none of these things in themselves would mean that Jerusalem was about to fall. They would go on for some time before the city’s ruin (Luke 21:5–19).

Jesus did not leave His followers without any sign to look for regarding the end of the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem. As we see in today’s passage, one event would signal that the city’s fall was at hand—namely, its being surrounded by armies (v. 20). Our Lord said that this would mean Jerusalem’s “desolation,” or its complete ruin. Indeed, Jerusalem was left desolate when the Romans put down the Jewish uprising that began in AD 66. Contemporary reports of the siege of Jerusalem describe the terrible end of the city. Josephus, the famous first-century Jewish historian, reports that 1.1 million Jews died in the conquest of Jerusalem in AD 70 and that 97,000 were taken captive as slaves. These numbers may be exaggerated, but whatever the case, the loss of life was staggering. During the siege, many residents even resorted to cannibalism because access to food had been completely cut off by the Roman army.

Once the army arrived, Jesus said, people in the city were to exit the city and those in the surrounding country of Judea were to flee to the mountains and not enter Jerusalem (v. 21). History tells us that the early Christians in Jerusalem and Judea heeded our Lord’s words. Some scholars argue that one of the reasons for the full and final separation of Judaism and Christianity was the Jewish Christians’ failure to support the revolt against Rome. Jesus said that these “days of vengeance” would fulfill all that had been written. Many Old Testament texts promise that the failure of the old covenant people to obey the Lord would result in the nation’s fall to its enemies (e.g., Deut. 28:45–57). The greatest failure of the Jewish nation was its rejection of its Messiah (though many Jews did believe), and the fall of Jerusalem was a consequence.